Data centers are generally centralized facilities that provide Internet and intranet services needed to support businesses and organizations. A typical data center can house various types of electronic equipment, such as computers, servers (e.g., email servers, proxy servers, and DNS servers), switches, routers, data storage devices, and other associated components. A given data center can have hundreds or thousands of switches interconnected in a distributed fashion. Often, multiple individual switches are grouped into a distributed system. Any one of these switches can leave or join the distributed fabric at any given time, with each such event being a potential disruption to the proper operation of the distributed fabric system.